


Going Home Again

by getoffmyhead



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alien Biology, Developing Relationship, M/M, Rainbow Dick, Sid's an Alien
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:20:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26232571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/getoffmyhead/pseuds/getoffmyhead
Summary: "You can explain?" Zhenya asked skeptically, peering up at the vessel."Sure, of course. It's easy. I'm an alien."Zhenya stared, waiting for more. Instead of elaborating or, ideally, laughing to reveal the joke, Sid nodded at the house."Let's go inside. Aren't you cold?"
Relationships: Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin
Comments: 22
Kudos: 116





	Going Home Again

Zhenya jolted awake, disoriented as he opened his eyes. His house trembled with the force of the noise that woke him, loud and white like a jet engine. His heart seemed to fill his chest, pounding to rival the racket. He scrambled from the bed and pressed his palms over his ears to drown out the noise while he rushed to the window to see what was happening.

He no sooner reached the window than the noise abruptly cut off. Zhenya lowered his hands away from his ears in the pulsing silence, suddenly afraid to look. Would there be a downed plane outside? He had heard nothing like a crash, but maybe he missed the impact in the chaos. Zhenya reached for the curtains with slow hands and forced himself to peek out.

The backyard was dark—typical for one in the morning. He could barely see anything at all, let alone the fire and chaos he had expected. Zhenya scanned the yard with squinting eyes until they landed on something out of place. He could just barely make out a strange object in the shadows. As he squinted at it, the moon slid out from between the clouds, and a metallic gleam slithered across the surface of the shape.

In general, Zhenya thought he did a lot of rash things. Rushing out the back door in the middle of the night in nothing but his boxers to see what was crushing his begonias might be high on the list. But it felt like he had to. What if it was some kind of experimental aircraft that crashed in his backyard—maybe a new military jet? What if somebody was hurt inside?

As he drew closer, Zhenya's internal justifications about a possible military aircraft grew less convincing. It was smaller than a jet, the size of a large SUV, and shaped more like a bomb than a plane. It hovered off the ground on four spindly legs that looked nothing like aircraft landing gears. Where there would be wings, the thing in the yard only had small, rudder-like flaps.

Zhenya stopped on his heels when the craft's nose split open with a whoosh of depressurizing air. A crack of light drew a line across the tip—a widening, hissing leer. Zhenya edged back a few steps, prepared to bolt as the gap grew larger, and the bottom part of the craft yawned open.

Clunky sounds emanated from within, unidentifiable until a pair of black sneakers came into Zhenya's view—footsteps. The bottom part of the craft's opening had small rungs, and somebody was walking down them as the gap continued to widen. Zhenya was not entirely sure he wanted to meet that someone.

The person inside folded forward before the craft's maw reached its maximum and stepped down onto the grass cradling something in one arm, poking at it. An iPad maybe—but it wasn't important. What _was_ important was the person himself. A man. A _familiar_ man.

"Sid?" Zhenya asked, his voice weird and squeaky with shock. Sid visibly froze before he dragged his eyes up from the pad on his arm. He didn't seem any less astonished at the situation than Zhenya. He gaped around at the back yard, seemingly surprised about where he had landed.

"Geno?"

"Yes, of course. I live here. Who else you try to find?"

“I wasn’t trying to _find_ anyone. I was trying to—" Sid dropped his hands in frustration and turned back to the pod. "This thing must be busted. I can explain, just one second."

Zhenya could do little else but watch while Sid leaned back into the ship's opening and climbed up a few rungs to poke around.

"Computer," Sid's echoey voice said from within. "Run a diagnostic on your transwarp navigation system. You were supposed to be taking me to Kepler. We didn't even make it out of the city."

"Negative," a computerized voice said in return.

"Negative," Sid repeated flatly to the computer.

"You did not instruct me to navigate to Kepler."

Sid threw up his hands. "Fine. Run the diagnostic. I'll be back." He placed the iPad thing inside the pod, then ducked down to step off the rungs and stride toward Zhenya.

"You can explain?" Zhenya asked skeptically, peering up at the vessel.

"Sure, of course. It's easy. I'm an alien."

Zhenya stared, waiting for more. Instead of elaborating or, ideally, laughing to reveal the joke, Sid nodded at the house.

"Let's go inside. Aren't you cold?"

Zhenya numbly kept up with Sid on the fast walk toward his back door. "Alien?"

"Yep," Sid said as he got the door for Zhenya and ushered him through. "It's not as weird as it sounds."

"Pretty weird," Zhenya said. The sudden warmth of his house made him realize he was shaking from the chill. A big shiver ran through him.

Sid closed the door and touched Zhenya's hip. "Go get some clothes on. I'll make tea."

Zhenya stared at him. Were they really going to pretend like everything was normal between them? Sid nudged at him to get him moving and walked off toward the kitchen. So, apparently, the answer was yes.

Zhenya felt like he should _do_ something, anything. He should yell at Sid or break something or storm away. Those wouldn't be healthy responses—more akin to the excusable madness of on-ice behavior—but an overreaction might kickstart Zhenya back to his senses. As it stood, he stared after Sid from within a hollow void of emotion, utterly unsure how to feel.

Instead of raging against the dilemma, Zhenya jerked his frozen feet into motion and obeyed Sid's order, walking stiffly back to his bedroom to get some clothes. He bundled up in sweat pants and a hoodie in his cavernous closet, still shaking with residual chill. He eyed the shower where he could thaw out entirely under the warm water, but a pulse of worry stopped him—what if Sid fixed that thing in the yard and flew away before he could reemerge?

Zhenya dug out a pair of rarely-used house slippers, a gift from his mother who didn't acknowledge his heated floors, and shuffled out to face the unknown. Maybe Sid would have antennae, expertly hidden away in his hair. Zhenya tried to be excited about what he might discover instead of freaking himself out. Sid would probably look really cute with antennae—an adorable insect. 

Zhenya pictured a waving set of spiky, green appendages a little too vividly and had to pause just short of the kitchen to get his ragged breathing under control. So, okay, maybe it was best not to speculate. 

When he finally forced himself to enter the kitchen, Zhenya found Sid looking perfectly normal—no new growths. He was dipping teabags into two mugs of steaming water. The sight was not unusual, not recently. Despite the dizzying newness added to the situation, Zhenya had to stop himself from going up behind Sid and nuzzling into his hairline.

Sid turned when he caught Zhenya in his peripheral vision and offered a sympathetic smile. "You look a little shell shocked."

Well, he just found out that his longtime teammate—and lately far _more_ than a teammate—was a space alien, so Zhenya's feelings seemed validated. He gawped, grasping for words and finding none while Sid approached, mugs in hands. Sid handed over one of the teas, searching Zhenya's face. Their fingers brushed before he let go.

"Drink up," Sid said. "You still feel cold."

Zhenya watched Sid blow the steam from the surface of his tea. "You're alien."

"Yeah."

"You seem normal."

"Well, I've had a lot of practice. I've been here for—twenty years, give or take. We were visiting a lot, too, before my parents decided to pull the trigger, settle down. It's a nice place for kids, you know?"

"Canada?"

"Earth. Not everywhere is so temperate. And the predators, yikes. You guys don't know how good you have it."

Zhenya's tongue dried up, and his brain stopped producing words. He stared at the total stranger, a literal alien, who he knew so well.

"Right, sorry," Sid said, shaking his head. "I'm going too fast. Do you want to sit down? Let's go."

Zhenya followed Sid into the dining room, slow and docile as a show cow, and stumbled to sit at the table. He put his tea down slowly, but it still seemed to make a loud clunk when it hit the table.

"What's on your mind?" Sid asked very gently. "Where do you want me to start?"

It was a good question, one Zhenya didn't immediately have an answer to. He grasped for words, desperate to say something.

“You have normal, like, _everything_. How are you alien?"

Sid sat back, looking suddenly uncomfortable. "Well, you know. Most planets with an atmosphere like Earth's, we all kind of developed the same way. There are differences, but—"

"What difference? You look just—regular."

Sid's mouth twitched. His eyes only made it halfway up to Zhenya's from the table before they stopped. He cleared his throat and tried for a smile. "Just regular? You don't think I'm hot?"

"Sid," Zhenya groaned. Something inside him clicked, a slipped gear dropping back into place and putting the whole system right. Sid might be an alien, but he wasn't scary. He was just the same as always, defusing the tough situations with bad jokes.

"No, it's cool," Sid said, bolstered by Zhenya's response. "I just thought you were dating me because you like me, but I see. It's pity."

Zhenya kicked his slipper-softened foot against Sid's shin under the table. "I don't like you. You lie to me."

He only meant it as a jab, something light, but Sid took it all wrong, judging by how his face fell. "Oh, G. No. I didn't lie. I didn’t _mean_ to. I just have to be kind of careful, you know? If there's no reason to tell people, what's the difference?"

"People," Zhenya repeated, his fake hurt turning real. He didn't think he was just 'people' to Sid.

Sid's hand slid haltingly across the table to touch Zhenya's wrist. "That didn't come out right. I didn't mean it like that. I was going to tell you."

Zhenya's bitter exhale of a laugh escaped him before he could temper it.

"Don't be like that. I _was_. I would have had to."

"Why?"

Sid cleared his throat and sat back. "Uh, well." He stopped talking with a reflexive and nervous grin. "There's some stuff about me you for sure would have noticed."

"What stuff?" Zhenya asked warily. Maybe Sid really did have antennae.

"Oh boy," Sid said, the words whooshing out with an exhale. "This is not how I wanted to do this."

In years of playing hockey at the highest levels with Sid, Zhenya had seen him visibly nervous only a handful of times. Despite the generally high pressure of their job, those times were reserved for the moments where they could lose everything—facing elimination or on the verge of falling out of the standings. The rest of the time, Sid was always the same—even-keeled and quick with a smile or a gentle tease, a human bright spot.

Well. Not _human_ , apparently. But bright nonetheless.

Sid was so pathologically steady he didn't even show any apprehension when, six plutonic years into their friendship, he leaned over and kissed Zhenya in the middle of a game of backgammon. Zhenya's knee had still been in a brace, fresh out of surgery, and Sid's head was a mess from a bad concussion. It was the worst possible time for them to start something so potentially world-altering, but Sid just nudged in without fear and pressed his lips to Zhenya's.

Knowing what it took to shake Sid, his sudden outward display of anxiety put Zhenya on edge, mind racing for the worst-case scenario. Sid wasn't real—he was a hologram or a little man in a robot body or a lizard wearing a dead man's skin.

"So, you know how we haven't, uh—" Sid grimaced, and Zhenya's skittering attention narrowed to one point. He knew exactly what they _hadn’t_ been doing. It was a source of consternation for Zhenya.

Things between them got off to a slow start. At first, they were mostly content only to kiss and remain friends, both so wary of change they tried to stay the same. But, as Zhenya's knee got better, they grew closer. Sid made reservations at a fancy restaurant to celebrate when Zhenya got his brace off—their first real date. After that, Zhenya used his restored ability to drive and stole over to Sid's house with a massive bouquet of flowers. Gradually, the off parts of their relationship turned on until they were undeniably something more than friends.

But even in the weeks since things turned serious, they hadn't done anything more intimate than dry hump each other. They would be making out, and Sid would be rubbing Zhenya's cock through the thin layer of his shorts, but as soon as Zhenya tried to return the favor, Sid pulled back. Every time, Sid put on an apologetic, hangdog look and talked about how late it was. Before Zhenya could stop him to figure out what was happening, Sid would disappear.

The first time Sid bailed on him, Zhenya nearly called off the whole thing. If Sid wasn't physically attracted to him, what were they even doing? Except, the next day, Sid showed up at his house with a bottle of wine and a winning smile, and well—Zhenya was a sucker.

It kept happening, and Sid kept not talking about it, and Zhenya kept not asking—at least not directly. He hinted, lightly prodding here and there trying to figure it out. Sid wasn't embarrassed about his body, so Zhenya could rule that possibility out. The team couldn't get him to cover up in the locker room. 

Without a better explanation, Zhenya had started to think maybe Sid was a lot more religious than he seemed. In a moment of desperate horniness, Zhenya had even gone so far as to look at wedding rings, thinking maybe Sid was saving himself for marriage.

"It's different," Sid finally finished up, drawing Zhenya's attention out of his racing thoughts. Sid's cheeks looked as pink as they did on the ice.

"Different?" Zhenya asked slowly.

"My junk, it's different from yours."

"No, it look normal. I see in shower."

Sid's eyes crinkled up at the edges even though the smile barely touched his mouth. "Creep."

Zhenya wanted to retort that Sid had left him on the couch with a raging hard-on so many times he nearly went blind taking care of it himself—he deserved at least a peek. But they would both know that his wandering eyes predated their injuries. They hadn't been in the shower together since then. Zhenya would be admitting that he had a staring problem long before he knew Sid was a realistic possibility.

"That's just the sheath," Sid continued before Zhenya could fully craft a response.

"Sheath?"

"Yeah, it holds the actual—" Sid put one hand over the other with a mortified look like he really didn't want to be teaching Martian sex ed. "Should I just show you?"

"Yes," Zhenya said—because he had been waiting months to get access to Sid's dick, and he wasn't going to let the revelation of Sid's origin stand in the way.

Sid blew out a breath and nodded. "Okay."

Zhenya sat back in his chair with a schooled look of casual interest as Sid stood up. His curiosity far outweighed any apprehension he might have. Whatever Sid had going on in his pants, Zhenya was more than ready to get acquainted with it. His eyes locked onto Sid's hands when they haltingly went to his belt and fumbled to get it open.

"It's hard?" Zhenya said, watching Sid struggle with the belt he presumably put on himself. But Zhenya's annoyance at the delay dissolved when he glanced up and saw Sid's pained expression. Zhenya wouldn't be into it either if someone told him to strip while they scrutinized. It felt like being examined at a doctor's office—not sexy.

Instead of encouraging Sid to continue by himself, Zhenya stretched a hand out and hooked his fingertips into the top of Sid's jeans, tugging him close. "Come."

Sid swallowed and obeyed in halting steps until his thighs bracketed Zhenya's. His crotch was close enough that Zhenya could lean in and nuzzle it, but he didn't. He pushed Sid's hands away from his belt and replaced them.

"Shirt," Zhenya said, trying to sound bossy as he fumbled with the buckle.

"It's not in my chest," Sid retorted, but he obeyed, stripping his shirt off and letting it drop to the floor as Zhenya got his belt open.

Zhenya tugged Sid closer to drop a kiss on his stomach. The skin underneath his lips jumped like a skittish horse. When he glanced up, Zhenya found Sid frowning at the wall, still looking braced for something terrible.

"You say is different," Zhenya said, hoping to talk some of the tension out of Sid's muscles.

"Yeah, it's—pretty different."

"You like different stuff?"

"Uh," Sid said with a cough of laughter. "I don't think so. It's pretty much the same principle as everyone else."

"If I put my mouth, that's okay?"

Zhenya heard Sid swallow and hid a smirk in another kiss to Sid's stomach. The skin didn't jump this time. "Yeah. If you wanted to—"

"I do," Zhenya said firmly as he pulled the zipper down. He dragged Sid's pants over his ass and down his thighs, leaving only dark grey briefs between Zhenya and the source of his curiosity. Nothing was going on there yet, but he figured as nervous as Sid seemed, that was normal.

"It won't," Sid said. "I have to get it hard myself. There's a—bone in there. I can't do it in clothes."

"You control?" Zhenya asked, a swoop of arousal rushing through him.

Sid shrugged. "Yeah, it's just a muscle thing."

Zhenya's hands shook with undisguised eagerness, and he had to force himself not to just yank on Sid's underwear when he pulled them down.

And there it was—a small, pink, soft cock lying in a fleshy bed of testicles—Sid's cute little package. Zhenya wanted to lean in and kiss it; he had been waiting so long.

"Stop it," Sid said. "I have to concentrate."

"I'm not stop you." To prove his point, Zhenya leaned back in the chair, which also served to get some pressure off his hardening dick. He moved his hand to adjust it in his sweats.

"You're really into this, huh?" Sid said, sounding more awed than nervous.

Zhenya had no words. He had been trying to get into Sid's pants since the day they kissed, had fantasized _long_ before then. There was no chance he could play it cool with Sid's balls hanging a scant twelve inches in front of his face. Zhenya shrugged, going for coy.

Sid's thighs trembled like he was lifting something, and his dick twitched. Zhenya's focus narrowed on it before he remembered he was supposed to be letting Sid concentrate. Apparently, Sid wanted to focus on Zhenya palming his dick through his sweatpants, so he relaxed against the chair back and rubbed his hand down the length of his cock.

"Jesus, Geno."

Zhenya felt pretty cocky about the quake in Sid's voice. He tipped his head back to watch Sid's face. Sid's forehead had a little crease like he was really focused on something. He looked a little sweaty.

A flash of color caught Zhenya's attention, and he couldn't help it. His eyes flicked down to where Sid's hand wrapped around the base of his dick, and his breath audibly caught at the sight. Growing from the flesh-colored base was a long, thin column of iridescent blues, purples, and greens—like hummingbird feathers. Zhenya's hand stopped massaging his dick through his sweats, focused only on Sid's still lengthening cock, shimmering brightly in the light.

"You see why I couldn't exactly get away with it," Sid said with a breathy chuckle.

"So much colors," Zhenya said, unable to take his eyes away from the shining wand of Sid's dick. The shades shifted with the light, an ever-changing kaleidoscope across shiny skin.

"It's like an evolutionary thing, I guess. Like birds. The prettiest dick gets to mate or something."

“Prettiest,” Zhenya echoed, because Sid was _definitely_ getting to mate. "Look like candy."

Sid's laugh sounded genuine this time, less nervous. "Probably don't expect it to taste that great."

Zhenya licked his lips and darted a look up to see how much he could get away with. It sounded like an invitation, and Zhenya's mouth was watering with desire. He crept his hand up to cover Sid's, aiming his dick with no ambiguity about what he wanted. When Sid did nothing to stop him, Zhenya leaned forward and eased his lips over the pointed head.

It was wet—that was what hit Zhenya first. Sucking dick usually took a couple passes before the dry skin lubed up enough to really start in, but Sid's came pre-moistened. He had a self-lubricating dick. Zhenya's mind spun at the possibilities.

"Taste good," Zhenya said. He sounded drunk to his own ears, high off the relief of finally— _finally_ —getting Sid naked. Even Sid's disbelieving exhale above him couldn't break his mood. He pushed his hand up onto Sid's stomach, fingers splayed across his abs. He didn't bother checking if Sid wanted him to keep going. He just leaned in and sucked Sid's colorful dick back into his mouth.

Sid's fingers threaded into Zhenya's hair, tugging gently at the strands while Zhenya tried to take as much as possible. Sid's dick was slender, thinner than the handle of a hockey stick, but it was long—as long as Zhenya's forearm. There was no getting the whole thing in his mouth, so he worked what he could with the flat of his tongue, feeling the smooth, slick skin.

"That's a lot more than a taste," Sid said—he had the audacity to sound shocked at Zhenya's behavior, like he had no idea Zhenya had been starving for him. But his hand stayed gentle in Zhenya's hair, making no effort to stop him.

Zhenya gingerly slid his hand down to do—something. On a human guy, he would work the shaft messily, hand covered in spit while he jerked it from the base to the seam of his lips. But the colors made Sid's dick seem so fragile, like blown glass. Zhenya hesitated to touch it too hard at first, just tickling his fingers along where the normal, pink-skinned base transitioned into a vibrant spectrum.

Thankfully, Sid brought his hand down to curl around Zhenya's and show him exactly how tight he wanted the grip. Sid groaned when he dragged Zhenya's hand up and down, using his fist like a sex toy. Zhenya kept working his mouth on as much cock as he could fit while Sid moved his hand however he pleased.

"Fuck," Sid hissed in the quiet. "I really thought you would take longer to warm up to this."

Zhenya's face couldn't mount an adequate show of protest with his mouth full, but he planned to give it to Sid later for assuming he was too mentally fragile to handle his rainbow dick. Instead of stopping to fight, Zhenya decided to show Sid exactly how much he could take. He moved his free hand to grab a handful of Sid's hip and slid his lips down until the tip of Sid's cock stopped at the back of his throat. He still had room for his entire fist around the base, nowhere near taking it all.

Not that Zhenya's failure bothered Sid at all. When he drew back, he glanced up and found Sid staring down at him, glassy eyes hooded with pleasure. It seemed like whatever Zhenya wanted to do was fine by Sid.

With Sid's cooperation secured, Zhenya tried again. When the tip once again met resistance, Zhenya swallowed against his urge to pull back and let Sid's cock push down into his throat.

The sound Sid made, a kind of cut off whimper, made Zhenya want to become a master of deep throating. The strain of swallowing Sid's candy-colored cock made Zhenya's eyes water. He had to pull back to take a breath, but he immediately dove down again, taking in more this time. His hand went reflexively to his lap, where his dick was trying to tear out of his pants.

"Let me see," Sid said, breathless.

Zhenya pulled back to suckle the tip while he worked his own sweats down over his ass. He didn't bother taking them off, just got his dick out. In a moment of brilliance, Zhenya dragged his hand down the slick length of Sid's cock, coating his fingers before wrapping his hand around himself. When Sid cursed softly at the sight, Zhenya took the hint and swallowed him back down.

With persistence, Zhenya eventually got Sid's cock so far down his throat, his nose touched the dark hair surrounding the base. The entire colorful length was inside him, leaving only the fleshy bits at the end. If somebody took a snapshot of just that moment, they would think Sid was normal. Human.

"G, I have to," Sid said with his voice weak. He was on the verge. Zhenya didn't let him retreat far, only enough so he could breathe and prepare to swallow. He took his hand off his own cock to reach around and seized Sid's ass with both hands, refusing to let him get away.

Sid puffed out a couple of ragged breaths while his hips twitched. Zhenya felt the pulse of his dick as it swelled, reaching the end. He held on tight, insisting that Sid finish in his mouth.

The first pulse gushed across Zhenya's tongue, an unexpected burst. It reminded him of sucking on water balloons as a kid until a hole popped through and filled his mouth. And like the water balloon, Sid kept coming, overwhelming Zhenya's ability to handle it. He swallowed all he could, but most of it leaked out from the corners of his mouth and soaked him from his bare dick to his sweatpants.

Zhenya barely processed that he was no longer swallowing anything before Sid shoved him flat against the chair back and sat down on his thighs. He was heavy—a good weight pressing down on Zhenya's legs, anchoring him to the floor while Sid got a hand around Zhenya's absolutely soaked cock.

Zhenya came with a sound he hardly recognized, like he had blasted through the ceiling of his pleasure and reached a new plane where he only made sounds of carnal sobs and whines. Sid pressed their foreheads together as he worked him through it, saying things that were only maybe English.

They breathed together in the aftermath. Zhenya could feel a small puddle of fluid pooling under his ass. He laughed, giddy, and Sid smiled with him.

"Well," Sid said through a grin. "I showed you."

"Pretty dick," Zhenya agreed and tipped his chin up to demand a kiss. Sid acquiesced, happy to sit on Zhenya's lap and make out with him while they wound down.

Sid broke away around the time the wetness of Zhenya's sweatpants began to verge on unbearable. "We're a mess."

Zhenya nodded, happily dazed. "Yeah."

Sid sat back and sighed. "I guess I should probably shower before I go."

When Sid stood, the feeling rushed into Zhenya's legs and made him realize they had been going to sleep. The tingling across his thighs almost distracted him from Sid's words, which he caught onto after a beat.

"Go?" he asked with an embarrassing amount of hurt in the word. He had been halfway through planning a midnight snack and crawling into bed together, a long sleep in Sid's arms before continuing to explore this welcome new aspect of their relationship in the morning.

"Well—yeah. I was heading out when I got diverted. Diagnostics should be done now, so I can get going."

Sid said it all so matter of fact, like Zhenya should be just as nonchalant. Zhenya tried to push past his true feelings on the subject of Sid flying away from the whole planet, but it obviously showed when Sid looked at him.

"It's okay," Sid assured with a coo of sympathy in his tone. "It's transwarp travel. It's like a plane ride, short and easy."

Questions battered against each other in Zhenya's throat, fighting to get out. He shrugged instead of asking, pulling his sweatpants up as he stood.

"Hey," Sid said and grabbed his hand to get his attention. Zhenya followed the pull until they were kissing again. "Don't clam up on me. What's up?"

Zhenya wasn't the one keeping giant secrets about his biology and attempting to sneak away from the solar system. But—Sid was looking at him with soft eyes. Sid had shown him his alien dick, opened up to him. Maybe he owed Sid the same.

"Why you want to go?"

"I mean, I go every year, just to visit. I have family there, still. I usually wait until summer, but this year—I'm going a little early."

"For what?"

Sid's effort to smile looked tinged with sadness. "I think there might be something different about me. Like, the way my head works. I'm not really recovering like I should."

"Concussion?" Zhenya asked, inadvertently dropping his voice into almost a whisper. They didn't usually talk about Sid's months-long recovery, the fact that it didn't seem to be going well.

"Yeah. Doctors don't really understand why. I think maybe—even though we're similar, we're not the _same_. Maybe human doctors just don't really know what to do. So I figured I'd try back home. At worst, even if it doesn't work, I'll be able to visit. Get my grandma's home cooking. She makes this noodle stuff, like gnocchi, in a really rich broth. It's the best."

"Sound good."

"I'll bring you some, eh? When I come back."

"You come back?" Zhenya asked, ripping his chest open for Sid to see.

"Of course I'm coming back," Sid said, amused before he seemed to realize how serious Zhenya was. His residual smile softened into something so fond. "Come take a shower with me. When we're not covered in jizz, I'll do something for you."

Zhenya let himself be led away into the depths of the house, through his bedroom—where he had only once convinced Sid to come lay down and watch a movie with him—and into the bathroom. Sid did the work of stripping Zhenya and getting them into the cavernous shower.

"This is nice, eh?" Sid asked between lazy kisses under the warm rain of the dual showerheads. "When I get back, maybe we can do more in that big bed than just watch Die Hard."

Considering the amount of come soaking his sweatpants, Zhenya would need to get a waterproof cover for his bed. Which he would, gladly.

"Can sleep there tonight," Zhenya suggested. "Leave in the morning."

Sid cupped a hand around Zhenya's neck with a rueful grimace. "I really wish I could," he said without any hint of deceit. He didn't need to explain further. Taking off in an alien craft in daylight would cause problems. Sid no doubt required the cover of night to make a clandestine departure.

"It's okay," Zhenya said even though he only partly believed himself. Relief spread over Sid's pinched expression and made Zhenya glad he forced the words out.

Despite their best efforts to dawdle, they eventually managed to scrub clean and exit the shower. Zhenya watched with a towel around his waist as Sid dug through his closet for something clean to wear. He paused at a Team Canada sweatshirt and shot a suspicious glance at Zhenya. "Is this mine?"

Zhenya shrugged coyly. Sid knew it was—something Zhenya pilfered from him because it looked soft and comfortable, but mostly because it was Sid's.

"I wondered where that went," Sid chuckled, thankfully moving on without taking the sweater back, and grabbing a long-sleeved shirt instead. It had a pun on it in Russian, written across the left pec. Sid also snagged some sweat pants—black, of course. "Where's your phone?"

"Counter," Zhenya said, pointing back where he put it after fishing it out of his sweatpants pocket.

"I'm taking it out to the pod. Meet me out there, okay?" Sid didn't wait for an answer, just raised up to kiss Zhenya as he passed.

Zhenya dragged himself into his clothes, reluctant to say goodbye. He hadn't missed the way Sid artfully avoided saying how long he would be gone.

Bundled up in warm clothes and a hat, Zhenya made his way out into the back yard. He could see Sid sitting on the ramp of his ship, fiddling with something in the light. As Zhenya approached, he saw his phone. Sid had something about the size and shape of an egg pressed up to it.

"I'm jailbreaking your phone to respond to interstellar signals," Sid said in response to Zhenya's unasked question. He glanced up and grinned when he saw Zhenya obviously not getting something. "You can call me when I'm home. Or text, whatever. It'll be like I'm still on the planet."

Zhenya's eyes burned as Sid handed him the phone back. It was only the cold causing them to water, he told himself. Clutching the phone like an unexpected lifeline, he wasn't convinced.

"You want to see where I'm going?" Sid asked.

"Yeah," Zhenya said, his voice tight around the word.

Sid grabbed the iPad thing from earlier and tapped it a couple of times. When he raised his hand and splayed his fingers out, a partly-transparent image of thousands of stars and planets popped up between them. Sid moved his hands, zooming and adjusting, until he found the right spot, then pointed to a small, forest green dot of a planet.

"There, that's me. Kepler 438b. Or, whatever, that's what you guys call it."

"Kepler," Zhenya repeated, reaching toward the hologram. It responded to his fingers when he moved them, zooming in on the planet. Sid beamed at him through the light of the map.

"So now you know where to find me."

"I come get you if you don't come back."

Sid shut the map down and left Zhenya with nothing to stare at but his admonishing face. "I'm coming back."

"Okay."

Sid shook his head ruefully. "You'll just have to see. I'll bring you my grandma's cooking."

"Sure, I want to try."

Sid kissed him long and lingering. Zhenya kept a grasp on his hand as long as he could before Sid pulled free and climbed up into the pod. Zhenya stood and watched the mouth of the ship slowly pull closed.

No sooner had the last light disappeared from the opening than Zhenya pulled his phone out and dialed Sid's number. Sid answered on the second ring.

"Miss me already?"

"Just want to test. Maybe you give fake number."

Sid huffed, a soft, amused sound. "Want to hang on with me through takeoff? You can test the range when I get into deep space."

"Yes, I want."

"Head back inside so we don't blow your eardrums, bud."

Zhenya backed up a couple of steps, taking in the sight of the craft one last time before he turned to walk back into the house.

"Alright, let's try this again," Sid said when Zhenya got the door closed. "Computer, lay in a course for Kepler. The one a few dozen light-years away, not the one in Pittsburgh."

"There is no Kepler in Pittsburgh, Captain," the robotic voice replied.

"Well, that's not what you said before your diagnostic."

"My diagnostic revealed no error. You did not instruct me to take you to Kepler. You instructed me to take you home."

Sid went silent on the line while Zhenya's heart swelled. Finally, he sputtered, "Shut up, computer."

But it was too late. Sid's technology had ratted him out and told Zhenya all he needed to know about how much Sid felt for him. Enough that his intuitive computer thought Zhenya's house was home even though Sid didn't live there.

"Ignore that," Sid said to Zhenya as the whine of engines began to spool up. "AI gets confused sometimes."

"Don't sound confused," Zhenya said, aware that his voice sounded very full of his smug smile. 

Apparently, Sid caught onto Zhenya's thrilled tone because he sounded more sheepishly pleased than mortified when he spoke again. "Well, it is. I'll get it fixed back home."

"Home? Here? No, I can't fix."

Sid chuckled over the line while, in the yard, the ship's spindly legs pushed its nose up to point at the sky. "Guess you have to believe I'm coming back now, eh?"

The floor under Zhenya's feet rattled with the force of the engines. The noise shook his entire house with growing intensity until, in a clap of thunder, the ship disappeared. Zhenya clutched his phone in the jarring stillness. He could still hear the slight distortion on the line telling him the connection remained. "Yeah, I believe."

**Author's Note:**

> Loopy on cold medicine, I almost titled this "Taste the Rainbow" before coming to my senses.


End file.
